Another screed from Jim Shankman. Here's my post about the first one. This new one is a response to my bringing the first one into the light. He says he does "not regret for a second using militant rhetoric when we face a threat that is militarized through and through."

You gave this dude his wish, Althouse. Here's this completely obscure nobody from a comfortable middle-class background who wants nothing more in the whole world than to be a martyr for his glorious leftist cause. You gave him the chance. Now, he feels all oppressed and famous at the same time.

This guy has a spare $10 that he decides to spend on his first hooker ever.He goes out, he gets one, then he brings her home.They have hours of hardcore sex. Then she leaves when he falls asleep.The next morning, he wakes up and discovers that he has crabs, he goes and finds the hooker again and says, "Hey, Bitch, you gave me crabs!"She replies, "Well for $10 what did you expect, Lobsters?"

If you've ever gone to art school, you've met plenty of these kinds of people.

That he named one of his social network accounts "pomos4logocentrism" is all the evidence you need. These are generally people not talented enough to be artists, not smart enough to be intellectuals, who believe that decadence is somehow novel and akin to intelligence. These people have managed to twist their narcissism, nihilism, mediocrity and self-indulgence into a political and revolutionary pose, ignorant (or in denial) of the inevitable wreckage of their lives that will remain when they can no longer count on youth to be the last, feeble excuse for their behavior.

Unfortunately several generations of misguided or similarly mediocre academics have spawned scores of these people.

Sad to say, after the shootings in Arizona, it's no longer safe to just assume that these faux-post modern losers are harmless.

But I agree with other commenters: this guy is getting exactly what he wants, and what every borderline personality wants: attention.

PS, dear Shankman, you can't imagine the fucking and debauchery that I, a real and actual liberal and libertine, am involved in. The difference between you and I? I realize that my personal life has no pretend political meaning or indeed any meaning beyond my pleasure and fulfillment.

I agree w/what others have said about the thrill of attention being the real goal of that character.Hopefully, the threat results in some legal wrist slap or worse. This guy has no more in common with actual labor that unions claim to champion than do the teachers who got this spectacle rolling.

I read part of the screed. It looks like an incitement for the baristas to spit in your coffee. Not a terrifying threat necessarily, but definitely another ripple of anxiety in the zeitgeist.....I think you and Meade have been fair to the protestors. I don't agree with their views, but, by the evidence you have submitted, they seem like decent people. Shankman in his screed does far more to discredit the protest than anything submitted by Meadhouse. Who would want to stand beside this frothing imbecile when push comes to shove?

"Now yesterday, all the days before yesterday, tomorrow, and all the days after tomorrow, those are totally lost to the bagger. Which, I gather, is your point."

Absolutely. I, briefly, considered approaching life in the manner of Mr Shankman. But reality, in the most morbid and unpleasant way, intervened.

The problem I have with so many so-called liberals and conservatives and other political types is that they're all so self-satisfied, as if they've found an answer to life's questions. I've never found an answer that has suited me and I've come to realize that that's the fun of life. To me, finding an answer is what happens when you die.

The moments I'm inclined to hate you, I remember that you like Scotch, and that reminds me that you're a person, as messy and complicated as myself, and my heart softens. If only the Shankmans of the world could understand that. Alas, my finances no longer support anything but gin, so drink a dram for me, peanut-butter-jelly-man.

"I only wish I had your rhetorical dagger. And also that I got laid as much."

Thank you, but you hold your own as well as anyone.

As for the frequency of lays, I'm sorry to say it's one of the perks of being a queer. Even a fat, morose 35-year-old like myself can find a lad who'll give it up.

shanknoun (informal)a dagger made by a prison inmate from available materials

C'mon... this is either someone who is totally deranged; or, more likely, it's just a big pile of Fake. Even the esteemed lawyers at Popehat think it is "satire or false flag".

Either way, it seems to be exceptionally useful. Althouse gets lots of blog-mileage from these threats. That's not to say that they are any less than reprehensible; still, being reprehensible and worrisome doesn't preclude them from being useful for Althouse, and especially for her minions in these comments.

Conservatives seemed to have been itching for explicitly violent threats like this to come, or at least seem to come, from the Leftist camp. Conveniently for them, here they are-- the cultural red meat that you ordered is now being served! And it's being served by a Shankman no less!

Julius -- Althouse has one of the better bullshit detectors in the world. Her and Meade combined (and I'm assuming he saw it before she publicized it) -- it's hard to believe even a brilliant fake would get past them both.

I would be shocked to find out this was fake. More likely, you just haven't spent enough time around petulant young people who are bored with their sheltered, comfortable lives. Some kids choose drugs. Some choose Marx.

I recommend drugs. Cocaine is a lot of bad things, but it does feel very, very good.

Nah, just a garden-variety douchebag. As someone with an unfortunately intimate experience with schizophrenia and psychosis, they don't write or think like this. It's simultaneously too clever and yet not clever at all, which true schizophrenics can't manage.

Conservatives seemed to have been itching for explicitly violent threats like this to come, or at least seem to come, from the Leftist camp. Conveniently for them, here they are-- the cultural red meat that you ordered is now being served!

Yeah, and that Giffords woman -- I'm sure you're convinced she was just askin' for it.

I just put up a subhead, by Lee Stranahan, about the violent threats being directed against politicians and then a weird fact struck me:

This shit has been happening to me as long as you, and many others, have known me - and the only response I got was "calm down" or some other put-on-a-happy-face garbage.

Notice the different response you got from me when it's become your turn? That's what I've been expecting. That's why I've felt abandoned by everybody. I've had my life threatened, lost jobs, been falsely accused - you name it - for merely sticking to my convictions, as you are now, and what kind of response did I get? I could die out here and you all would blame me because, by now, I'm no longer "nice". My ordeal started with my wife killing people - I proved it - and, still, I get no help from anybody. Well, sorry, but I'm all niced-out.

I am a good man. I've always tried to be a good man. But even good men get pushed too far. I don't deserve to have threats made against my life treated as any less than threats made against yours. I don't deserve to have my word treated as any less than yours. What's happened to me - by you and others - has been wrong.

I don't mean to distract, or take away from, in any way what's happening to you. But like you, now, I used to be famous - that made me the target - and they've since stripped me of every vestige of who I was. I had no one running to my aid, as I would be willing to run to yours, because the field I came up in was competitive - people resented me because I was better than they were and there's only so many reviews, and recording contracts, to go around. Somehow, I don't think being a recording artist is worthy of the attention of a politician, or a professor, but damn it, my life is - maybe more in fact, because, unlike you - and in the face of the ridicule that even you are willing dish out on occasion because I'm not "sexy" about it - like a snarling dog I've found the wherewithal to fight, and fight alone if necessary.

I wish you and Meade the best, but i sincerely think you should consider what it would be like - what you would be like - to be in this particular spotlight and find yourself alone:

I agree w/what others have said about the thrill of attention being the real goal of that character.

Initially he'll probably strut about in his immediate circle of friends, having demonstrated how radical he is. Maybe eventually he'll clue in to how many people (including his circle of friends) are laughing at him for being a doofus and no-talent, derivative lamer.

On the other hand, odds are good that he's got a lot of no-talent, derivative, lamer friends, so it may take a while.

I'm not going to press the issue, because I know you guys will laugh at me, but from this doofus attacking Ann as a Christian (what group do we know hates Christians?) to thinking the Jews were asking for it, to the yoga masters showing up at a protest, these are all the same people. It's all the same mindset. As I pointed out on the thread with the lefty chick discussing the courts with Ann, if she'd ask them what their spiritual beliefs are (and isn't it funny this guy ran to religion out of the blue?) she'd find I'm right:

NewAgers are who we're dealing with here - it's the belief system of the Left - as surely as I know Christianity is the belief system of the Right.

Look at what survived in Russia after they abandoned religion - cultism - and nobody attempted to wipe it out.

You can pooh-pooh it all you want, but Jared Lee Loughner, too, didn't come into focus as long as everyone discussed him in political terms. Once he was a NewAge killer, then everyone said "Ahhh."

Quit looking at the Left in terms of "liberals" or "progressives" or whatever and see them as the people who do yoga, who buy homeopathy, who go for self-help books by Deepak Chopra, who were impressed when Oprah joined Obama, and then they ALL make sense. Until you do that, you'll never get a bead on what's happening out there - and that's their strength. They work through your distraction and confusion. Those political labels are a con. As I always say:

Defeat the Left and they'll be back - defeat NewAge and we're done with the whole lot of 'em.

Crack Emcee,The one problem I have with your new age rants is not that I disagree that much (most) new age stuff is utter crap, and some of it dangerous. But you're lumping in yoga in with new ageism. Even if you discount the whole notion that yoga has anything to teach you spiritualy, it's hard to deny that it has benefits as a physical art. And even if you think meditation doesn't ultimately lead you anywhere, it's relaxing. And that in itself can lead you places. Same thing with some of the alternative doctors. Much of it is crap, but much of what whe think of as traditional medicine was at one point altnernative.I think my beef with altnernative culture is more that people poo pooh religion, but then ascribe an order to the universe, which wouldn't really exist absent a higher power (Not necesarily a christian god, but some sort of ordered universe). Like John Lennnon saying he doesn't believe in god (and how God is simply a concept by which we measure our pain), but then turns around and writes a song about how instant karma is going to get you. Why, if you didn't believe in an ordered universe, would you believe in karma?

and if John Lennon believed that the big bang started everything for no reason or purpose and life is simply an accident, then there's no way he could simultaenously believe that what goes around comes around. Maybe statistically it does, but how is he ascribing that to a response to your actions as opposed to something that simply happened to you.

I had a conversation with a coworker a few years ago and he was talking about a book where the author was basically saying that what you do comes back to you instaneously. So if you do something bad, then it will impact your life negatively (something about positive and negative energies). Basically it sounded like Karma. Only he seemed to be suggesting that it was a one to one interaction that could be tracked scientifically. i.e. you do good and you instantly get rewarded for doing good. But I asked him, suppose you wer in a car accident, how are you determining that the car accident was a direct response from the universe to what you did in your life. It might make more sense if you do something and then IMMEDIATELY something bad happens. But more than likely youll do something in life, then something bad happens later in life. And there's no way to actually track that it was your negative actions that caused this negative action. THere are plenty of people who don't seem to do negative things, who still get bad things happen to them, are we really going to say they are responsible for happenstance? I could see why a Buddhist might believe in Karma. But I couldn't see why an atheist could believe in Karma.

No, the problem with New Agers is that they believe "We are in possession of the Higher Truth. We are superior beings, and we know that our intentions are good. Therefore anyone who opposes us must be Evil, and any means necessary to defeat them is justified."

Julius wrote: Conservatives seemed to have been itching for explicitly violent threats like this to come, or at least seem to come, from the Leftist camp. Conveniently for them, here they are-- the cultural red meat that you ordered is now being served! And it's being served by a Shankman no less!

I'm not lumping yoga in with NewAge (one word: rhymes with "sewage") that's how I found it. When I went looking for what NewAge is I had no preconceived ideas - I sincerely didn't know what it was. But now I do and, sorry, but yoga's smack dab in the middle of it. I'm not the one writing for Yoga Journal and calling it:

A non-Western belief system that comes lightly disguised as an exercise class.

I'm the guy not falling for the disguise - and trying to get others to understand why it's disguised in the first place.

Now, considering all those risks, and all the ways there already are to relax - which anyone can do (take a warm bath, go for a walk, read a book, etc. - why would anyone be compelled, in the least, to go the NewAge route?

Alternative medicine would require a whole other set of links I don't want to look for, but I will give you this - and to tie it all together under the heading of NewAge "fraud", this.

Perhaps it's worse than that. This is like someone from the mainstream media using the rantings of a lone, crazy Tea Partier to smear the entire movement, something Althouse has worried about, so I assume she's doing it on purpose in this situation.

Jason: "This is like someone from the mainstream media using the rantings of a lone, crazy Tea Partier to smear the entire movement"

Except it isn't. This happens to be one of very many nutcases that have been revealed over the last several weeks, this one acting out a bit more than others. I would doubt that we would find much condemnation of this fruitcake from the hard core demonstrators who occupied the capitol for days on end.

Crack Emcee wrote:Yoga, regardless of the form, doesn't offer a comprehensive way to get fit,...It's not the best way to lose weight either,...power yoga burns fewer calories than a comparable session of calisthenics.

The problem is that your counterfactuals may be just as suspect as the facts you say are not facts. For example, there may be a new age aspect to yoga, but that doesn't mean that you have to ever buy into it to still take advantage of the physical aspects. Also, a lot of the more traditional excercise methods may not be as good for us as we think. Many experts say that cardio workouts aren't good for you either. And we've all heard about the marathon runners who are supposedly the picture of health who keel over and die of heart attacks, or who destroy their knees running. They may not have a spiritual side to them, but that doesn't mean that their virtues are not similarly hyped, or that people aren't dying do these traditional methods.As for a lot of the alternative treatments for various diseases, certainly a lot of it is quackery, but take Coretta Scott King. Should we fault her alternative treatment for killing her or she we fault the fact that she was dying of a terminal disease? From what I read about her case, she never actually started the treatment. Now this doesn't mean that the treatment would have worked, but neither does it mean that it wouldn't have worked. Traditional medicine also didn't work. How many thousands of people go to hospitals every year and die from a staph infection gotten from simply staying in the hospital? You could lay the exact same charge on traditional medicine that you could on alternative medicine if you want to cite the stats of the problem cases.

In many cases things like Yoga will be beneficial for those who use it effectively and not effective for others. They get out of it what they put into it. Even if you argue that yoga isn't the most effective means to burn fewer calories it also doesn't mean it doesn't burn calories. Walking may not be the most effective means of burning calories either, but I wouldn't say that because it isn't the most effective means to burn calories that it has no merit at all.

Martial arts have a spiritual side or background and includes meditation. Now whether you become enlightened by practicing it, it would be hard to argue that a black belt in martial arts doesn't know how to fight.

Same with the Kama Sutra. I'm sure there are spiritual aspects that you could take or leave that are part of the work. But even if you say that chakras are bullshit, it doesn't mean that you couldn't find some poses in their that would make lovemaking more pleasurable.

Conservatives seemed to have been itching for explicitly violent threats like this to come, or at least seem to come, from the Leftist camp. Conveniently for them, here they are-- the cultural red meat that you ordered is now being served!

After all we heard about the "violent" tea parties and the "violent" rhetoric from conservatives, this is quite rich.

And it's being served by a Shankman no less!

It's not an unheard of name, risable as it may be. Adam Shankman is rather famous in the dance world.

I felt physically ill when I read the Shankman threat. I'm sorry for the pain it caused you both, and take care. You have, as is obvious, myriad supporters.

Crack Emcee is quite correct. This same thing is happening to any who dare complain or argue another viewpoint.

Death threats kept a LaCrosse GOP Senator from holding a meeting, and his wife found nails scattered on their driveway. ("The e-mail said Fitzgerald and his "Republican dictators" must die because of their actions, presumably referring to GOP senators passing a bill removing most public employees' collective bargaining rights.")

This guy is a loser, doubtless, but he's no loner, either. The cops, firefighters, and teachers in Wisconsin have threatened to boycott any businesses that do not display signs in support of the unions, a much more effective threat than Mr. Shankman's.

But just as thuggish:"In the event that you cannot support this effort to save collective bargaining, please be advised that the undersigned will publicly and formally boycott the goods and services provided by your company."Boycotted by cops. Wink wink.

He apparently comes from a Christian background. His Mommy is Dean of the College at Benedictine College, a Roman Catholic school. Mommy also has a Phd. in political science, which may explain some of this.

Girlfriend was a national merit semifinalist, and now has a MA in library science. Not clear what little Jimmy's credentials are, but he and girlfriend are both nearly 30 years old, so youth is no excuse.

They are from the academic bubble, outraged that one of their own has (to them) conservative views.

Nails were scattered on his driveway twice last week. The incidents were reported to the La Crosse Police Department.

Also, Kapanke's’s windshield was damaged on March 9 after the Senate voted on the budget-repair bill. Kapanke was advised by Capitol police he would not be able to reach his car parked on the Capitol Square because of protesters. A state trooper moved the car, and when Kapanke went to his car a short time later, he found a hole in the windshield."

A non-Western belief system that comes lightly disguised as an exercise class.

What's funny is that in the south, they have yoga classes and play christian music to try to counteract that, I guess. I agree there is a whole yoga movement that is new ageish, but it is pretty easy to divorce actual yoga poses from that. Especially when they are on your wii.

Well, this time it's personal.

Indeed. She's not seeking out random nutjobs, random nutjobs are seeking her out.

So wait... now he doesn't regret attempting to extort you two for five-grand per organization he mentioned? I mean, just because you called him on it and didn't even consider paying doesn't mean he didn't try.

I have never supported or advocated violence for any purpose other than self-defense against terror attacks by the armed wing of the American Right.

Obviously, this guy thinks the "armed wing of the American Right" is committing "terror attacks" and his calls for violence are justified. Then we have lefties like Julius who somehow want to blame Meade, Ann and conservatives in general for this. More warped logic trying to deny what was there all the time.

Apparently Ann and Meade committed terror attacks by carrying cameras to photograph and video record the protesters' activities. The horror. Unions have a long history of violence. Ask Joseph Yablonski and his family.

Well, I wasn't about to wade through the 500-odd posts before to find one or two pearls, but from what I saw there and what I see here, I note Garbage trying to change the subject, Julius smirking "shouldn't have worn that skirt if you didn't want to get raped, bitch" and Jason whining that Althouse is hyping this threat on purpose.

What's missing? A simple "this is wrong. I disagree with you on every political thing under the sun, but this is wrong. I condemn it." Nope. It's ALL YOUR FAULT because you won't SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!

The modern left. Worthless, treasonous, partisan fucksticks, every last one of you.

The modern left. Worthless, treasonous, partisan fucksticks, every last one of you.

I understand that wading through 500+ comments is enough to curl any man's chest hair, but Christopher, you did miss a good one that negates what you just wrote.

I already have done so, but kudos to one Ben Masel (who apparently is Facebook "friends" with Jim/Karl), who manfully admitted this terrorist screed embarrassed him, a Lefty. He also had a word in Mr Shankman's shell-like -- to no avail, alas.

I guess Jim never heard of CWA v. Beck or Abood v. Detroit Bd of Ed. in which the Supremes held that the 1st Amendment protects the right of anyone to resign from a union at any time (or never join) and not pay any portion of dues (even if mandatory) which go to political activity.

I'm still not clear if the professoriate at UW Mad even has a bargaining unit. I know they're not an AAUP bargaining unit.

Obviously we who think highly of Ann and Meade would not harm a hair on Shankman's head no matter how much we think he might deserve a good drubbing. Do we shun him in polite society? But that makes no sense because we won't find him there. Do we harass him in public? And yet that's exactly the kind of behavior the left engages in that we find so contemptible.

That's the problem with having principles. We can't quite bring ourselves to treat our enemies the way they treat us.

Do you know what "lone" means? Everything that has been so backward and grubby about this protest: the threats, the vandalism, the Hitler-insanity and the "refusal to do their jobs" law-breaking of the Govt. employees in general, has been documented multiple times. You can find copies of death threats delivered INSIDE the Capitol if you just scroll down a bit.Minimizing the criminality may be good short-term P.R., but the truth always outs.

So basically this guy just makes up whatever assertions he wishes were true. Althouse advocates torture? And where did he learn that assertions don't have to be factually based to have an impact? From the leftist academy. People chanting is democracy, not voting. Disagreements on public policy are "acts of viciousness".

The left has always attacked traditional history by saying it's written by the victors. What they don't publicize is their effort to write current events in their favor simply by saying and writing whatever would make their preferences more supportable. Their ability to limit competing information to their supporters allows the left to employ this historical propaganda technique in real time.

David said:"Girlfriend was a national merit semifinalist, and now has a MA in library science. Not clear what little Jimmy's credentials are, but he and girlfriend are both nearly 30 years old, so youth is no excuse."

I have to think she lacks common sense when a supposedly smart kid majors in library science in this day and age.

Well, Victoria, thank you for pointing Mr Masel's comment out (I don't use Facebook, myself, so wouldn't have seen it). And good for him.

But my larger point is that it took about 70 or so comments for Garage (our first obvious lefty) to jump in, and almost immediately he sneered that the threat would be a good career booster for Althouse. Not a "sorry to see this," but a snicker about Fox and Walker.

Digusting and loathsome, but - these days - not at all surprising. In fact, the only thing that surprises me is that Garage didn't ask how long it took Althouse and Meade to write the threat themselves.

My chest hair will now uncurl and go back to its usual lush, luxuriant growth.

I think that the best thing that you and Meade can do is to ignore this person and if he comes onto your property or otherwise threatens to do you physical harm is to call the authorities or respond with appropriate force.

My chest hair will now uncurl and go back to its usual lush, luxuriant growth.

Mmmm. And I bet it's got a bit of "distinguished" grey already.

PS: Ben Masel actually showed up HERE, Christopher. I totally respect the courage and decency it took to do that, even if that should be normal behaviour for all. As we've seen with some AWOL Althouse Lefties, alas, it's not...

David said..."He apparently comes from a Christian background. His Mommy is Dean of the College at Benedictine College, a Roman Catholic school."

Alas, that is not necessarily a guarantee that she adheres to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. Remember, Richard McBrien still holds a billet at a Roman Catholic school more than ten years after Ex Corde Ecclesiae.

I feel “gypped” when did you all discuss all this torture and violence against smelly hippies? The least you could have done was get it noticed on Hot Air or Instapundit, that way I could have dropped by and had a good laugh!

Nobody loves me, I NEVER get to see the fun threads….One day I won’t be here and you’ll all miss me when I’m gone….you will, you’ll see.

FREEMAN HUNT: Has Althouse ever claimed to be a Christian? Is the Shankster claiming that he's one? If no to both, why in screed?

KENSIGNTON: I've noticed over the years that crazed liberals generally presume that anyone they hate must be Christian.

What Kensignton said. This is true especially when it comes to hot-button moral issues: if you are against homosexual marriage or take a pro-life position, you are automatically presumed Christian, and guilty for it. It is always a hoot when that happens, and your debate opponents try to quote Leviticus, or something of the sort. Good fun.

Christopher, you did miss a good one that negates what you just wrote.

I already have done so, but kudos to one Ben Masel (who apparently is Facebook "friends" with Jim/Karl), who manfully admitted this terrorist screed embarrassed him, a Lefty.

But when Ben Masel commented here, it wasn't to say that Jim Shankman was wrong, it was to say that he was embarrassed because Shankman's threat wasn't helping his side. There's a significant difference.

There may be a new age aspect to yoga, but that doesn't mean that you have to ever buy into it to still take advantage of the physical aspects.

Before, you called it a "physical art", and now you're arguing something like that ("the physical aspects") again. You're clearly under their spell. Look, jr, as an artist, I'll just say - as I do about a lot of crap that thrives in the art world but doesn't belong there - if someone's convinced you that putting your head up your ass is "art" then, please, go for it. I'm a proud, old school American and will continue to regard contortionists as worthy of circuses and freak shows - and a MAJOR waste of time for the average person's life, selfishly taking them away of doing something productive. You desperately want to sound intelligent but you sound like a fool:

The closest thing I've never heard of a white man's racist plot around getting us to run is Nike while Indians have been laughing about the colonization of white's and the West, specifically through yoga, for decades. How's it feel to willingly be another culture's bitch?

And not "a lot" of "alternative" practices are quackery - they all are. You say "much of what whe think of as traditional medicine was at one point altnernative" but you leave out that - until science, and science alone, proved it worked - those things stayed quackery. But nowadays - arguing casually against simple common sense and logic as you are now - you "alternative" types don't think you have to care about that until you've either killed someone or talked someone into killing themselves. You know better, right jr? Yeah. Listen, Coretta Scott King's time may have come - and there was nothing that medicine or all the dedicated people who, I'm sure, loved her could do - but nothing justifies her dying in a quack's dusty parking lot in Mexico, waiting to give the fraud money for something that wouldn't have worked under the best of circumstances. The same goes for the nonsense they put poor Steve McQueen through, which his wife is still seething over decades later.

I'm sorry, jr, but your "received wisdom" is really just cultish lies attempts to justify a culture of death and lies. If I were you, I'd remember your example of walking and do that. It ain't a black belt, nor does it give a exotic name (like "Kama Sutra") to the basic act, but ask around:

Crack Emcee wrote:xBefore, you called it a "physical art", and now you're arguing something like that ("the physical aspects") again. You're clearly under their spell. Look, jr, as an artist, I'll just say - as I do about a lot of crap that thrives in the art world but doesn't belong there - if someone's convinced you that putting your head up your ass is "art" then, please, go for it. I'm a proud, old school American and will continue to regard contortionists as worthy of circuses and freak shows - and a MAJOR waste of time for the average person's life, selfishly taking them away of doing something productive. You desperately want to sound intelligent but you sound like a fool:

Let me put it this way. Suppose it turns out that karate is based on movements performed by Shaolin monks and each move had a religious significance. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you believe in the religious significance of the move, but rather is it effective for what you're trying to get out of it.It can have both connotations, but that doesn't mean that you have to believe in both to get the benefit out of karate. If the dog pose in yoga makes your back hurt less, then who cares why some yoga expert says is the religious significance of the move if it helps you. Yoga experts don't hold copyrights on how to move your body. It's like Bruce Lee developing his brand of kung fu. He simply took from other styles. He didn't care about the tradition of the moves, but rather cared whether they were effective. So he had karate, kung ful, judo all mixed in. So if you are trying to get in shape and use yoga, pilates, strengh training cardio, swmming, pace method or some combination, then you can do those things and not care where they came from.Even if yoga masters are wrong about the ulitmate meaning of life it doesn't mean that they may not be right about certain poses to use.

I have to think she lacks common sense when a supposedly smart kid majors in library science in this day and age.

The mission of the current librarian is to prevent our losing our teeth as we attempt to sip from the information fire hose.

The tendency of today's kids researching something is to grab a hit from the first page of google results and declare victory. Librarians have always organized information and helped users find the most relevant to their needs. This skill is more valuable than ever.

Crack Emcee wrote: know better, right jr? Yeah. Listen, Coretta Scott King's time may have come - and there was nothing that medicine or all the dedicated people who, I'm sure, loved her could do - but nothing justifies her dying in a quack's dusty parking lot in Mexico, waiting to give the fraud money for something that wouldn't have worked under the best of circumstances.

The only problem with this is that there was nothing that traditional medicine could do to help here either, so you could argue there was nothing to justify her dying in an uncaring oncologists office and being pumped through with chemo and radiation that not only didn't cure the patient but made them sicker while they were dying. And if traditional medicine has given up on people I don't see why they wouldn't seek other avenues that may yet offer hope. It's not a guarantee that it will offer hope of course, and you may very well end up at a quacks office, but it's also not a guarantee that they wont be cured. Alternative treatments deal more with the immune sytem as a whole and strengthening that. If it can be strengthened the immune system itself can fight off many diseases. And that's scientific whether it's said by a traditional doctor or by an alternative doctor. They just use different methods.Take vitamin therapy. Statins do things well but also have their drawbacks. If there is a natural compound that does similar things to Statins but don't have the side effects why would it be quackery to use that instead. Is it inconceivable that people would use red yeast rice or niacin over a statin? Vitamins are used more by the alternative crowds, but even doctors say to take vitamin C for colds, or aspirin (which is based on a natural compound) for heart protection. So there is a lot of overlap.Also there are ways that some alternative doctors are ahead of hte curve in dealing with diseases. For example, some doctors are now using the properties of cancer to deal with it in a different way than traditionally is applied, but which is still based on scientific principles. The idea is that cancers rely on sugars to survive (a scientific principle). So some of the newer methods would use limited doses of insulin to affect the blood sugar level, then pump in a much smaller does of chemo after the cancers went after the sugar in the body. Such a technique would be much more prevalent at an alternative clinic, yet it also runs on scientific principles and incorporates traditional methodologies as well. So is that alternative or tradtional?To me the best medicine is one that uses both and some of the best doctors I went to gave me antibiotics or medicine where necessary but also gave me tips on what to eat so as to get the proper nutrients, or what have you.

So heartbreakingly pathetic. If this guy had called talk radio, the host would've hung up on him. Unless, of course, it was that overnight show that panders to UFO-Stonehenge-2012 guys. Appropriate punishment is to make him invisible on this site. But now one of Breitbart's guys has granted him immortality. Let's let him be the doofus whose name we dare not speak.

Great read from a Berkeley therapist who left the Orwellian cult of the progressive left at American Thinker - http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/letter_of_amends_from_a_recove.html

We both suddenly became aware that something had grown really dark in the Democratic Party. I started hearing about many other incidents where loyal Democrats were being physically and emotionally threatened for supporting Hillary. A woman in Berkeley had her front window broken because it displayed a poster of Hillary. Randi Rhodes, an Air America talk show leftist, called Hillary a f______ witch. (Rhodes was recently promoted to a national talk radio show, illustrating another disturbing trend: the deafening silence about what Rush Limbaugh has dubbed the new "thug-ocracy.)

Palladian wrote: These are generally people not talented enough to be artists, not smart enough to be intellectuals, who believe that decadence is somehow novel and akin to intelligence. These people have managed to twist their narcissism, nihilism, mediocrity and self-indulgence into a political and revolutionary pose, ignorant (or in denial) of the inevitable wreckage of their lives that will remain when they can no longer count on youth to be the last, feeble excuse for their behavior.

This is very well said. And it's not just art schools that are full of these types. It's a large percentage of the people getting any kind of graduate degree in the humanities or social sciences. My graduate school peers were almost all like this. Often they were people in their late 20s or early 30s who had drifted around for years in that protest/decadence/partying mode and had no idea what to do with themselves and were rapidly losing what little self-confidence they had in their ability to make something of their lives. Getting another degree and being angry about Republicans was what they did. It was sad to see how the older ones were realizing that they'd gone down a serious dead end in life.

I have destroyed all ID cards, mutilated my fingerprints, and now wear a mask whenever I appear publicly.I am politely skeptical that this guy has shredded his driver's license and credit cards. (If he has any, they are probably in his mom's name, nebbish.)

I am even more skeptical that he has sandpapered his fingertips. But maybe his fingerprints are distorted from "dishpan hands" if he really works as a dishwasher.

Let me put it this way. Suppose it turns out that karate is based on movements performed by Shaolin monks and each move had a religious significance. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you believe in the religious significance of the move, but rather is it effective for what you're trying to get out of it.

It doesn't matter to you, but you don't live a vacuum - and you KNOW others are being influenced and led into this shit I document because lamers like you refuse to say "why don't I just drop this 'spiritual' shit and find the 'alternative' without it?" There are tons of them, but you don't question why you're driven to this crap specifically - you're led to it and do it - thinking you're too smart to be led. What part of it's "disguised" didn't you grasp? It's "disguised" as exercise, it's "disguised" as healthy, it's "disguised" as relaxing, it's "disguised" as progressive, so you'll do it - no matter what. Don't you get that?

Good things don't have to be "disguised". A culture based on lies is, by it's very definition, "bad" - and leads to more lying. Many of which you're repeating now. I don't see how you think practices that lead to brainwashing, and people being killed, needs your defense. It deserves your rejection.

It's like Bruce Lee developing his brand of kung fu. He simply took from other styles. He didn't care about the tradition of the moves, but rather cared whether they were effective. So he had karate, kung ful, judo all mixed in.

Bruce Lee's dead.

So if you are trying to get in shape and use yoga, pilates, strengh training cardio, swmming, pace method or some combination, then you can do those things and not care where they came from.

Ahh, as I said, you "don't care". And, as I've said many times on this blog, when you don't care, you give others permission not to either - which leads to the horrors I'm outlining. Nobody cares if these things lead to death and destruction because part of the mindset is to become selfish - you're into self-love, self-interest, looking for self-help, as the whole of the world is about you, you, you, and more you. I'm saying fuck you - think about what's going on around you for a change.

Even if yoga masters are wrong about the ulitmate meaning of life it doesn't mean that they may not be right about certain poses to use.

Poses - for what? The United States is light years more knowlegable - about everything - than that stinky backwater called India, with their poverty, caste system, child labor, rampant cultism, lack of education, sexual exploitation, and on and on and on, but you're going to turn your back on everything we know for their goddamned poses?

Like I said, they've got you - mind/body/spirit - which is the essence of mindless cultism.

Meade wrote:Please no counter threats or personal attacks - even in jest.Fine. How about an invitation to Skankman and his gf to visit me (or I will visit them) to play Dungeons & Dragons, and maybe play catch or stickball (since he apparently wanted to throw baseballs at your home)?

The only problem with this is that there was nothing that traditional medicine could do to help here either, so you could argue there was nothing to justify her dying in an uncaring oncologists office and being pumped through with chemo and radiation that not only didn't cure the patient but made them sicker while they were dying. And if traditional medicine has given up on people I don't see why they wouldn't seek other avenues that may yet offer hope.

False hope is not only exploitive but, in the case of quackery, financially exploitive. You don't see that? Also Mrs. King could've died at home, surrounded by the love of her family, rather than demoralized in the embrace of a scam artist. Was that any way for an American icon to die? And who says anyone who treated Martin Luther King's wife was "uncaring"? That's exactly the kind of evil framing mechanism I see all the time to make you sound like you believers are the compassionate ones when, in reality, your victims are actually dying in the disgusting manner we know they're dying in - minus the money for their families because it went to your healthcare frauds.

It's not a guarantee that it will offer hope of course, and you may very well end up at a quacks office, but it's also not a guarantee that they wont be cured.

Bullshit. Quackery's cured no one. If people get better they give whatever they're doing the credit, whether it deserves it or not. That's why they can be taking water (homeopathy) but if their cold or whatever goes away, they swear water cured them. There is such a thing as spontaneous remission - ever heard someone claim that's what cured them? No, because they don't think about, or even understand, all the possibilities of how we heal. They just ignorantly claim the quackery cured them.

Crack Emcee wrote:That's exactly the kind of evil framing mechanism I see all the time to make you sound like you believers are the compassionate ones when, in reality, your victims are actually dying in the disgusting manner we know they're dying in - minus the money for their families because it went to your healthcare frauds.

I don't know that hospitals are uncaring, but I do know that chemo can make you extremely sick, and when you're dying of cancer can turn you into an emaciated shell. It happened to at least two family members. The hospital may have cared, but it was still a sad way to go. And there are people who claim to have been cured by alternative treatments, as well as frauds in the alternative fields who take advantage of those people. Just as there are frauds in the medical profession who take advantage of patients. I'm just saying it's not an either or.

Alternative treatments deal more with the immune sytem as a whole and strengthening that. If it can be strengthened the immune system itself can fight off many diseases.

Oh, bullshit. I've heard that "immune system" and "the whole person" and "quantum" bullshit everywhere. They're just NewAge talking points. Homeopathy is supposed to be for each specific person - though they sell it randomly on the shelfs of Whole Foods. And it sure is funny the rest of us, who ain't doing shit for our immune systems, still, get better.

Crack Emcee wrote:What part of it's "disguised" didn't you grasp? It's "disguised" as exercise, it's "disguised" as healthy, it's "disguised" as relaxing, it's "disguised" as progressive, so you'll do it - no matter what. Don't you get that?

It's not disguised as excercise. It is excercise. It's not disguised as healthy or relaxing, it is both. Now that doesn't mean that therefore you have to buy into all the spiritual bunk that comes along with it. Did you ever buy an excercise book and just look at the excercices? Who cares where they come from ultimately? Now there could be a new excercise phenomon that combines the best of tai chi, pilates yoga and hip hop dancing. If some of the move are coming from yoga or tai chi, you could do the exercises and not even know they came from a spiritual place. And if you are meditating you don't have to meditate to yoga imagery. Did you ever do deep relaxation techniques? I don't know where they come from spiritually, but they really relax you. And whether they were initially uttered by a cult, maybe that's something the cult got right (despite getting everything else wrong). Charles Manson cut some records, which may or may not be good (haven't hear them). He was also wacko. You might like the song he sung and still recognize his craziness. Like OJ and his wife killing. Even though he killled his wife it doesn't take away from his football career (nor does his football career excuse his brutal murders).

And for those who take to yoga, hook line and sinker, I doubt they'll be mass murderers.

That's scientific whether it's said by a traditional doctor or by an alternative doctor. They just use different methods.

Two problems:

1) These people only want science when they're claiming it justifies their bullshit - otherwise they're "uncaring oncologists" right? You can't have it both ways - either science is good or it ain't - and science is against you on this.

2) Science's methods are proven. It changes as knowledge is increased. If someone dies, they want to know why and, if it's a bad drug, it's recalled. if it's a bad practice, it's halted.

Your "alternative" methods have NEVER changed, whether someone dies or not. Homeopathy, for instance, is 200 years old and it's never changed - it's diluting a substance to nothing, shaking it, and then hitting it against a bible. That's your cure.

But your kind swear by it - for everything - even cancer, malaria, and now (since Japan) radiation poisoning.

Take vitamin therapy. Statins do things well but also have their drawbacks. If there is a natural compound that does similar things to Statins but don't have the side effects why would it be quackery to use that instead. Is it inconceivable that people would use red yeast rice or niacin over a statin? Vitamins are used more by the alternative crowds, but even doctors say to take vitamin C for colds, or aspirin (which is based on a natural compound) for heart protection. So there is a lot of overlap.

There is absolutely no reason for anyone to take vitamins or supplements. I've tried to avoid links to get through each of your arguments, but on this I will:

Here's the backgrounds of the people who brought us the vitamin and supplement craze.

They're all criminals - and you're a patsy, jr.

You should also look up the history of the DESHEA in this country - it's all a scam, man.

There are ways that some alternative doctors are ahead of hte curve in dealing with diseases. For example, some doctors are now using the properties of cancer to deal with it in a different way than traditionally is applied, but which is still based on scientific principles. The idea is that cancers rely on sugars to survive (a scientific principle).

Again with the enemies of science claiming science is the basis for quackery. Until science denounces them, then science is wrong again. Come on, man, you're an Althousian, you must be smart enough to see through that shit.

Freeman Hunt, "Shankman" is a Jewish last name, not Christian. This is supported by his anti-Christian bigotry, and his nose.

I've known Shenkmens and Schenkmens, but no Jewish Shankmans. In my experience, Jewish families tend to use particular spellings. For example, many, perhaps most, Jews with Polish last names use an ...sky ending, not ...ski.

I've always assumed that Prof. Althouse's last name sounded Yiddish. If that's the case, Shankman calling her "unChristian" is at least clueless and possibly malevolent.

Some of the newer methods would use limited doses of insulin to affect the blood sugar level, then pump in a much smaller does of chemo after the cancers went after the sugar in the body. Such a technique would be much more prevalent at an alternative clinic, yet it also runs on scientific principles and incorporates traditional methodologies as well. So is that alternative or tradtional?

I'll tell you what - ask Orac - he's a cancer surgeon who'll laugh you out of existence trying to pull this bullshit on him.

Your "alternative" methods have NEVER changed, whether someone dies or not. Homeopathy, for instance, is 200 years old and it's never changed - it's diluting a substance to nothing, shaking it, and then hitting it against a bible. That's your cure.

But your kind swear by it - for everything - even cancer, malaria, and now (since Japan) radiation poisoning.

You're murderers, jr.

How am I a murderer? I don't tell people what they can or cannot use to treat illnesses. Life is the murderer. As to the rest, if you have radiation poisoning you take potassium iodide,Is that an alternative treatment or a conventional treatment? What about if it was both?

" bullshit. I've heard that "immune system" and "the whole person" and "quantum" bullshit everywhere. They're just NewAge talking points. Homeopathy is supposed to be for each specific person - though they sell it randomly on the shelfs of Whole Foods. And it sure is funny the rest of us, who ain't doing shit for our immune systems, still, get better."So it's your belief that the immune system is bullshit? or that you can't build it using vitamins? Can you have vitamin defficiencies? Ever heard of being low in Vitamin C and getting scurvy or being deficient in Vitamin D due to lack of sunlight, or having trouble absorbing nutrients due to a leaky bowel or what have you. If you can be deficient in vitamins, or nutrients, and taking vitamins increases the amount of vitamins stored in your body, then doesn't that prove you can supplment in certain cases to restore health? What do you give someone with anemia? Iron. I can buy that in a Whole Foods too. Yet, if I went to a conventional doctor or an alternative doctor, and they'd check my blood they'd both say that I was deficient and then prescribe something that would get the needed vitamin or mineral into my body. So I think doctors are not as skeptical of being able to build up your immune system as you seem to think they are.

Here's a link that says VItamin D may help prevent MS:http://www.neurology.org/content/76/6/540Now more study needs to be done, of course, but this is conventional medicine conducting said study that suggests that supplementation may prove beneficial in treating certain disesases.We also know that flaxseed, omega 3's and Red Yeast Rice help with cholesterol problems. I know because I'm on them (haven't helped that much yet). Prior to taking that, the doctor prescribed me an over teh counter drug that was essentially a higher powered fish oil. The EXACT same thing I could have bought at the Whole Foods. Now this is not to say that therefore all alternative treatments are legitimate, but rather that it's not an either or. Would you take the cholesterol drug prescribed by the doctor if you found out it was just fish oil? If the doctor is prescribing it, and it brings down cholesterol, then isn't that suggesting that it's in fact working? Isnt' that essentially the same treatment as the alternative treatment?

To me the best medicine is one that uses both and some of the best doctors I went to gave me antibiotics or medicine where necessary but also gave me tips on what to eat so as to get the proper nutrients, or what have you.

Antibiotics and proper nutritional information are called "medicine". They came to us from science - they had nothing to do with "alternative" anything. Only "alternative" liars act like they invented it, or had anything to do with it, or that there's anything special about anyone telling you those basics of the practice of "medicine". They put those basics in their schtick - the minimum a doctor knows - so they can sell you their quackery along with it.

Crack Emcee wrote:Antibiotics and proper nutritional information are called "medicine". They came to us from science - they had nothing to do with "alternative" anything. Only "alternative" liars act like they invented it, or had anything to do with it, or that there's anything special about anyone telling you those basics of the practice of "medicine".

A lot of doctors are afraid to prescibe too many antibiotics, lest the various germs become immune to them when you really need an antibiotic. So how do you normally fight diseases? With your immune system. Very often that's all that is needed. And yes your immune system can falter, and it can also be built back up with a lot of vitamins, and plenty of rest, and lack of stress. I would get that advice if I was going to a traditional or alternative doctor. And proper nutritional info, is all about vitamins and minerals and chemicals found in nature and the environment and our food that are supposedly beneficial or harmful to the body and can aid in treatment of diseases. Which most alternative medicine also references. In fact, I would argue alternative doctors are far better with nutritional info than regular doctors who usually are not trained about what to eat in med school.Again, my approach is do both traditional and alternative medicine where necessary.

I don't know that hospitals are uncaring, but I do know that chemo can make you extremely sick, and when you're dying of cancer can turn you into an emaciated shell. It happened to at least two family members. The hospital may have cared, but it was still a sad way to go. And there are people who claim to have been cured by alternative treatments, as well as frauds in the alternative fields who take advantage of those people. Just as there are frauds in the medical profession who take advantage of patients. I'm just saying it's not an either or.

It is so - guess what, jr? Dying itself is "a sad way to go" but you get your best shot with medicine - not quackery.

That gets to the crux of what I see in the "alternative" world - you people are cowards.

Just because you're afraid to die you'll make it so fewer can live by promoting things that will kill you as cures.

Says who? Yoga masters - just as I said most positive info on meditation comes from the Maharishi cult. As a famous fitness expert said, I dare you to go up to a woman who's into yoga and ask her to drop and give you 50 - she can't do it because she's not really "in shape".

Crack Emcee wrote:Just because you're afraid to die you'll make it so fewer can live by promoting things that will kill you as cures.

That's some twisted shit.

Unless someone is giving some drug that will kill them, then in fact it's not the treatment killing them, but the disease. ANd in many cases traditional medicine has already written off people,

Crack Emcee wrote:It is so - guess what, jr? Dying itself is "a sad way to go" but you get your best shot with medicine - not quackery.

Except if traditional medicine has already said something is not curable, they've written off the patient too. If traditioanl medicine says there's no hope and you go somewhere else and they say we'll do what we can to rebuild your immune system, maybe we can get you to live 6 more months, what's the harm there? Even better if they can cure things completely.

Crack Emcee wrote:No, jr, I don't any of that shit. You know why? because I don't need it. I'm alive - I want to move, and groove, and think. Not sit still and shut my mind off.

You seem a bit high strung. Maybe it wouldn't hurt you to get out of your thoughts for a bit to just decompress. Stress is a killer, and if people can't learn to deal with their stress they can get themselves dead. So if mediation is your way to decompress, or sitting by a pool reading a book is your way to decompress, more power to you.

Sure, everybody died, but Jim Jones was right about how you mix Kool-Aid.

Well in this case he was right how to mix kool aid, but mixing kool aid isn't a hard skill to master. However, simply because he was a cult leader I woudn't necessarily argue that he couldn't possible tell me how to mix kool aid, if that is what I was looking for, since me getting info on koolaid from him doesn't mean I have to buy into the Jonestown massacre thing. Which also doesn't mean that he wasn't a manipulative bastard who led people to their deaths. Only his kool aid skills are not the source of his evil. So if he could or couldn't mix kool aid properly would be largely immaterial to whether he was a good or bad person.

If I had to get info on Serial Killers, I might, like Clarice go see Hannibal Lecter to get his unique persective. BUt that doens't mean that I would have to become a serial killer like him.

Says who? Yoga masters - just as I said most positive info on meditation comes from the Maharishi cult. As a famous fitness expert said, I dare you to go up to a woman who's into yoga and ask her to drop and give you 50 - she can't do it because she's not really "in shape".

Being able to do 50 pushups may not be the be all and end all of fitness. Muscle bound jocks may have muscles out their assholes, but I wouldn't necessarily want to be that musclebound asshole since I'm not sure that is in fact healthy .Can a muscle bound jerk swim 10 miles?

Also in many cases you are looking for a low impact workout and lifting weights is too difficult. Things like tai chi and yoga can give you those, whereas weight lifting might not. What are you looking to do? Weight loss, strength training, flexibility, endurance? Depending on what you want yoga may or may not be the best excercise for the job. But don't be a snob about it beucase you don't like the source. Screw it, steal the move and incorporate it into your workout routine. If you like the results keep doing it, if not, don't. Is it your contentin that because you disagree with where they're coming from spiritually that even their excercises are wrong? If it causes you to lose fat, gain musle tone, become relaxed, learn to breathe better, it's a legitimate excercise. If I were you I wouldn't worry about where it came from so much as whether it makes you more fit. ANd if it doesn't then ditch it for things that work better.

Sounds kind of depressed. He's "committing identity suicide?" What does that even mean? I really hope Shankman gets some help for his emotional and mental problems soon. Seriously, before he hurts himself (or worse). He really seems like a troubled young man.

Meade wrote: Please no counter threats or personal attacks - even in jest. Fine. How about an invitation to Skankman and his gf to visit me (or I will visit them) to play Dungeons & Dragons, and maybe play catch or stickball (since he apparently wanted to throw baseballs at your home)?

Hey, hey, hey, do not, I repeat, do not involve the greatness that is D&D to be associated with these sub-human mouth breathers. Thank you. :D